Day 4- Rio Blanco

Here is the hotel that we stayed at in San Marcos.

They had a black Jesus statue in their town.

This is on the way to the "Highlands" which is the mountain area of the country.  We headed to the small town of Rio Blanco, where Tyler served the first 6 months of his mission.  Once we got off the main road, we took a very bumpy and worn dirt road for many miles to the village.  There was a woman who was needing a ride, so we picked her up.  It turns out she is a member of the church that lives in San Marcos.  She works in Rio Blanco as a judge and commutes there everyday!  She had quite an interesting life story.  It was fun to talk to her (and she even knew a little English!)

We had an amazing member, Evelio Vasquez,  that we met up with who took off most of the day of work to help us find and visit certain people.  His family lives in Quetzaltenango during the week, so the kids could go to school.  He works for the city offices.  

We visited Debin, who was 9 when Tyler baptized him.  It was great news to hear that he was getting ready to go on a mission in a few months!

This is his family's home.

We also went to visit another boy that Tyler baptized, named Alan.  Unfortunately, he wasn't home, but his mother was.  She was a sweet lady.  She was been having some abdominal pains and had gotten an ultrasound done. That sparked up the doctor in Tyler and he went off for the next half hour about symptoms, possible causes, and treatment.  His Spanish is not medical friendly, so he kept using his Spanish translator on his phone. 

We went and had lunch at the Ochoa Family.  They were so gracious.  Here are the two daughters cooking tortillas over the wood burning stove.  Our meal was rice, cooked veggies (tomatoes, potatoes, and carrots), and a small morsel of beef with tortillas. 

The Elders currently serving also had lunch as well. 

Here is the whole family:  The girl in the red pants was so embarrassed to have a picture taken of her in her work clothes.  She joked with us saying we better not put it up on Facebook!

We went over a few mountains to a village called, Chuicabal.  Tyler would walk or ride his bike over here, which was an amazingly long distance.  They had a small chapel built here when he was serving.

We visited a few members, but only got a picture with this family.  Tyler baptized the girl in red, Sandy.  He also baptized her mother, Gladis, who now lives in Oklahoma.  The other lady is Gladis' mother. 

After this, we headed down to the great city of Quetzaltenango.